Categories: Residence and weekdays, Ira Motolyga

Borisov consisted of the two cities – Old Borisov and New Borisov and there was a dam. A regular bus ran, it cost 45 kopecks, one bus ride. I was given the money for one way ride, and there was a bookstore, and there my mother's familiar Jew worked, I still remember the surname Zavkaysky. Mom wanted us to learn something, and my mother left us kopecks, some money. And when new books, fairy tales, or other good books appeared she asked him to leave them for us. And she told us, «Go through the dam, do not pay for the bus, you have young legs. And you will take more books on the way back». And we went for books. My older sister was very intelligent, when she was 4 years old she could already read, tell the time looking at the Roman time clock, took me everywhere for a walk. I was so doughy. She did… We rented a house, my grandmother made a stove there, and in front of it there was made such a platform, the grandmother made such wooden shelves, my sister put books there, all the kids wanted to read books. And she, as a librarian, gave out us books to read and she read for me. And besides, there was a round radio like made of paper, and there was a theater. She knew when there would be a «theater at the microphone», and we sat down with her and listened to the theater from the microphone. I was very fond of it. I listened to everything. And grandmother sat, too. Everybody did. But once I wanted to see who was in the theater, and I broke the radio looking for the people hidden there. That's what I remember.

Did they punish you?

I wasn’t beaten. My grandmother swore at us, named us «fatherlessness», «hooligan». So, to tell the long story short, they brought a new loudspeaker, and Anka cried a lot when it had been broken. She read very well, when grandmother did all about the house she came and asked Anka: «Аh, Irka reads badly, you read very well, read me «Poor Liza». Anka sat down and read carefully. I studied not very well, so-so. The elder sister studied well, she had been always come to the station to watch the trains, and when she finished 10 years of education she left for Moscow. She was at the station. She wanted to enter Historical and Archival Institute, first year she didn’t pass, she found a job in the sphere of building, and later on she entered the institute and studied there.

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Researcher: Наталья Иващенко, кандидат исторических наук, ГрГУ им. Я. Купалы, Светлана Силова, кандидат исторических наук, доцент, ГрГУ им. Я. Купалы